Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Musser)

Kansas is stuck between a wind turbine and a hard place. Renewable energy, such as the wind, could help the state reduce the emissions, by-products released by power plants, from coal, gas and nuclear plants, add more jobs and add revenue in places where there otherwise would be no revenue, according to Tom Sloan, State Rep. 45th District.

There is one big problem with the high hopes for wind energy in the state though, location.

“Wind energy is a lot like real-estate,” Scott White, Assistant scientist for the KU Energy Research Center said. “It is all about location, location, location.”

Lawrence, on the other hand, is not that location.

White said that a good location would involve somewhere with steady wind and existing electrical transmission lines. White said that most companies who are developing wind energy in the state want to site their farms near current transmission lines. Adding new transmission lines could run $1 million a mile, so there is a bottleneck in certain areas of the state, White said.

New transmission lines in the state could alleviate some of the bottlenecks currently in place. Sloan agrees that new transmission lines are appropriate.

“The potential for wind energy in Kansas is very very great.” Sloan said. “But it will take transmission line construction to make it possible.”

According to White, the Flint Hills are the most ideal spot in the state right now for wind energy because of the sparce population and the unobstructed hillsides. Wind blows better in this area and ,of course, there are existing transmission lines, but Ron Klataske sees it differently.

Klataske is the Executive Director of Audubon of Kansas, a non-profit organization that is involved in the preservation of the prairie chickens and the Flint Hills in Kansas. You would think that a "green" society would be on the same page as others when it comes to wind energy in the state, but again it all comes down to location.

The search for the right location has incited a fight in Kansas with most of the resistance coming from the Flint Hills.

“We support wind energy in the state, but just not in the Flint Hills,” Klataske said. “It is all dependent on proper siting.”

Klataske said that only 5 percent of the original Flint Hills prairie is still intact and that he does not want to see power companies destroying the landscape. Although Audubon of Kansas supports the new Spearville wind farm near Dodge City because it does not harm the delicate Flint Hills. Back here in Lawrence, Jennifer Delislie, President of the Jayhawk Audubon Society, agrees with Klataske’s position.

“We support wind energy in the state of Kansas,” Delisle said. “There just needs to be some guidelines for proper siting.”

With the current debate raging in the Flint Hills, one local company has come up with a solution that they think might solve the answer to the Flint Hills problems.

Jennifer States, Managing Director for JW Prairie Windpower, said their company has came up with a new concept called community wind. The Lawrence-based companies new concept is different from exisiting wind farms because there are smaller groups of turbines, which are connected to smaller distribution lines, said States.

These wind farms are located near communities so the economic advantage for the communites are more beneficial because the land owners get a return on the profits as well as investment in the project, said States. Along with this, the use of smaller transmission lines makes the projects more able to get underway now because they won't be near the bottlenecks that every other wind farm project is wanting, said States .

JW Prairie Windpower is involved in several wind projects in the state right now, but nothing is definite beacuse they are just waiting on the utility companies to join the deal.

"Our Morris County Wind Farm is fully developed and ready to go," States said. "We just need a power company to pick it up."

Westar, the largest utility in the state, has been apprehensive with the use of wind energy because it is not economical to them right now, according to Gina Penzig, Senior Reprentative for Westar Communications Media.

Penzig believes that wind energy needs a “good hard look” despite their apprehension for the energy right now, but she also agrees that location will be key for wind energy in the state.

“Location will be one of the many factors in whether wind energy succeeds in the state,” Penzig said. “There are other factors, but location is an important one.”

Aquila, another big utility in the state of Kansas, believes location is important. Kurt Floerchinger, Media Relations Specialist, said that wind energy is definitely an alternative for energy.

“We feel that wind energy is an option worth considering,” Floerchinger said. “We have already started to pursue other types of energy in the state.”

Aquila is currently purchasing wind energy from the Gray County Wind Farm in South Eastern Kansas.

With the future of wind energy still unknown, location has seemed to be an important issue, but Penzig will remind you that the future is up in the air.

“Wind energy definitely has a future in the state,” Penzig said. “What it is I am not certain, and I don’t think anyone knows for sure either.

For more Info:
Kansas Energy Information Network
Kansas Energy Council